Karen Bearse Designs

Monday, November 28, 2016

Hello Inky Friends, welcome tofall. I know it is snowing in some places and almost December. Christmas music is playing... but our weather is behind this year & it still feels like fall. So when in Rome...

Continuing in my series of Inspired by... I took a different approach for this post. How many of you go onto Facebook or Instagram and see all kinds of cool art? Do you get excited and think I want to do that? This happens to me all the time, very rarely do I act on it but I do get inspired to create something usually. As I was scrolling Instagram the other day I thought what if I just create a list of things that are amusing me visually & then made my art journal based on the list? So I did!

My list of Inspiration:-collage-crackle stamp

-postage stamps

-real leaves

-vintage photo

This was a fun exercise that I will be exploring more in the future. I ended up with a page that is quite different from what I would normally do but is 100% mine-fun! I am entering this page in the Frilly & Funkie Challenge. The challenge is Bountiful Harvest using the rich hues of autumn. I have to add that one of my favorite parts of this page is the vintage photo added of my mother when she was 6 years old. Just makes me happy! I hope you have time to get some art done today.

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Hello Inky Friends, today we are making a necklace with resin! First of all Happy Thanksgiving to all of you In the United States. May it be filled with family friends, turkey & stuffing!

I have a tutorial up on the Resin Crafts Blog using their amazing new 10 minute setting FastCast resin. This product is incredible and takes the long set time out of the game.

Here is the necklace you can make, colorizing it however you choose. The beauty of this is if you need a necklace for say Thanksgiving dinner, whip it up in an hour and bam you are ready to go. Matching earring would be quick too! You can find the blog post here. Great for Christmas gifts too!!

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Hello Blogland I am on the Resin Crafts blog playing with paper. I have an easy tutorial on how to make book page dividers using resin paper.

Here is one I made for my art journal, love that it represents a snap shoot in time, helps me to put my art journal in context. These pages are stunning up close. I hope you give it a try, you can check out my post here.

Wednesday, November 16, 2016

I have a tutorial up on the Southern Ridge Trading Co. Blog making a Journal Your Christmas - JYC album cover. I took a class years ago from a good friend of mine Deborah Mahnken, we made a mini album, book style. I had added some photos, etc to the inside but never finished decorating the cover. There is a challenge on the blog every month & this month is all about winter or Christmas- come on over you could win free chippies!!!

Here is my finished cover. I used lots of Emerald Creek embossing powder on this. Winters Mistake & Soft Fallen Snow are perfect to add those snow like elements. Creates this light fluffy emboss with glitter- too cool! I am also entering this in the Emerald Creeks Dare contest this month. Come on over & play you can find the current challenge & the chance to win a $50 gift card here.

As you see it is my book from 2013. I will be finishing up the insides over the Christmas Holiday. Do you have unfinished projects that you would like to get done? All forward movement counts so if you need some inspiration to pull out that unfinished project... You will find a full tutorial with lots of step out photos, over on the SRTC blog. Check out the new holiday chippies. I hope to see you there!

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Hello Blogland, today I am thrilled to be a guest blogger for Frilly & Funkie. Sponsored by the Funky Junky Boutique there is great inspiration and challenges with product and design spots to be won! You can find my guest spot here.I highly recommend you stop on by and play. Pamelia is the host & the theme for this challenge is What A Mesh! The challenge this time
is to use any type of mesh (crinoline, cheesecloth, tulle, burlap,
canvas etc) in your vintage or shabby chic project. You can find this challenge here.

My art journal page was designed to go in my on going spiral bound junque journal. To see more of this journal check out my Instagram (link on the side bar) #100daysofkarensart. The fun thing about this project is I can use all kinds of substrates.

One of my favorites is Crescent medium weight Art Board. I used the backside as I wanted to use molding paste so I saved the front side for inks. This board is perfect to hold up to heavier pastes yet The Cinch can easily punch through it for the spiral binding.

I don't know about you but I tend to over do things. I am picturing my friends laughing at this statement as the words come out of my mouth. When I was given the challenge "what a mesh" I had an immediate thought of what mesh I wanted to use. Next came color & ideas, finally theme. As I sat down to create however it became I could use a mesh stencil, with actual mesh & oh look I have chipboard mesh!!! The wonderful places my brain goes! Ok let's go!

Start with a layer of gesso, to give the paste something to grab onto, as the backside of the board is untreated. Once dry, anchor the mesh with a thin layer of molding paste. Let this dry. I usually have multiple projects on the go at one time so I am not waiting on drying paste which can take quite a bit of time. Next layer was through my net stencil with more of the light molding paste. As this board is going in an art journal I use light so it doesn't add physical weight to my piece. I also added some crackle paste just with a spatula in random spots. I am a tad obsessed with crackle right now, love the effect in can bring to a piece. Let dry completely- do not use heat gun.

Time for color! Adding Glimmer Mist & Glaze in blues, purples & green seemed a good place to go. I wish I had taken a pic at this point because my project looked like a hot mess. Mix media tip: just keep adding layers. Almost all my pieces have a case of the uglies at some point. I made a glaze using paint & acrylic glaze- 50/50, covered the whole piece, waited a few minutes & wiped some of it off. This help blend my color together in a cohesive piece but still let the multiple colors show through. Then went in and added back glimmer glam on the crackle spots which most of the color had lifted off. Much better!Once that was dry I dry brushed some metallic paint on the high points. This gives amazing shine to the piece.

Time for embellishments. I didn't take step-outs of these but rather did close ups of how they look on the finished canvas. The seahorse was die cut from corrugated cardboardwith the top layer pulled off, gessoed, and painted withglimmer glam. Glitter glass & microbeads were added using decoupage glue. The metal helm looking gear was added using glossy accents. For the cattails, simply add multiple colors of glimmer glaze. Glitter glass was also added with decoupage glue.Once the canvas was assembled all that was needed, more microbeads.

Here is a close up where you can see some of the mesh in the piece & the rusty helm. I debated adding some fishermen netting with some shells & still may try that out to see how it looks. I have to say this is one of my favorite art journal pages & I may have to turn it into a canvas. Thanks again to Frilly & Funkie for letting me be a designer for this challenge. I hope you join in the fun!

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Hello Inky Friends, I have a winter snowy art journal post up on the Southern Ridge Trading Co. blog. It is starting to get colder in between the heat waves we keep having here in Virginia. Today it is going up to 80 degrees & I have plans to garden-crazy! It is my turn to start the challenge this month which is Christmas & winter. I did a winter page with a hint of Christmas for my first post of the month. Did you know you can win $20 worth of chipboard lusciousness every month on the SRTC blog? You can join in the challenge here.

My page is in my ongoing spiral art journal for the100daysproject. You can see all my pages on Instagram @karenbearse link on the side, under #100daysofkarensart. This was created on the backside of another page which was made using multiple phone book pages glued together with a glue stick. A coat of gesso helped tone down the phone book but let some of the pattern show through. Painting was done with Glimmer Glam & Glaze for both the background & the chipboard pieces.

Don't forget some splatter with white acrylic paint & some sequins but just a few.

To add in that Christmasy feel let's add a wee reindeer, some ornaments & random stars. These Art Stones look like snowball mounds! The colors for this page were inspired from the Words & Paintery Challenge Blog. My title was cut from denim jean material which was part of this months theme. Come join in their monthly challenge!

Who Inspires Me!

copyright

Hey gang, I worked hard on these designs & definitely want to inspire & teach. Please use these for personal use only & not reproduction or teaching purposes. They are copyright to Karen Bearse 2011. The same goes for other peoples credited work! Awesome.